Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Redress

I suspect that those of you who only know me through this blog think of me as just an old-fashioned, tree-chopping he-man. The kind of guy who's most comfortable sitting around drunk in the cabin I built on a bluff outside of Laramie, watching monster truck rallies on satellite TV and picking my teeth with a matchbook cover.

But there's so much more to me, kids. When I'm not doing the watching-and-picking thing I love to check out what's happening in the art world. Hell, I'm an art junkie. Hang it on the wall or stick it on a pedestal under a spotlight and sure, I'll take a peek. High art, low art, folk art, insider, outsider, good, bad–whatever. In this day and age, I'm just happy that people are still doing something besides watching monster truck rallies and picking their teeth with matchbook covers.

My friend Nancy called me up and told me there was an installation I should check out at the School of the Art Institute's Sullivan Galleries (33 State Street, 7th floor– aka the old Carson Pirie Scott building). She said it wasn't just any art, it was art with knitting in it. Well, you don't have to tell me twice. (You do, actually. Sometimes more than twice, because I inhaled too much Paas Easter Egg dye as a child.)

So Nancy and I went to see the installation, Redress, and I liked it so much I went back again yesterday to take pictures and chat with the creators. It's a collaboration by three artists–Amber Ginsburg, Carla Duarte, and Lia Rousset, all students in the MFA program.

Redress is interactive.

A rail of thrift-shop sweaters is suspended from the ceiling; more are piled in one corner. Even more have been unraveled, and the reclaimed yarn is spooled around eight wheel rims (from wrecked bicycles) mounted on a wooden platform (salvaged from a warehouse). The yarn winds off the rims (as though from a swift), swoops across the room via a series of hooks, and hangs down above eight seats (more salvaged wood) where it is being turned into eight swatches.

Anybody can knit on the swatches, and lots of people have. Afterwards, they can log their time on the appropriate time card.

The concept is simple, and the artists have done a good thing in not posting a notice explaining what it all means. You walk in, you knit (or watch the knitting) and you think your own thoughts and draw your own conclusions.

I was surprised as all heck at how much bubbled up in my brain during my visits. Knitting is something I do every day, and have done for so long that I generally don't think about it much. I should clarify: I think about what I'm knitting, but not the act of knitting.

Well, sitting in the middle of Redress I was suddenly very aware of my knitting again, almost as though I were a beginner, or a non-knitter watching a knitter. The knit stitch suddenly looked...odd. Alien.

And whenever I'd need more yarn, I'd pull on the suspended strand and the bicycle wheel would spin, and make a pleasant clicking sound. And that sound would remind me, "You are using more yarn." I became very aware of using up the raw material.

Handling the yarn and seeing what was left of the original sweater, I started to think of the person who had run the knitting machine that made it. I wondered who it was, what the factory looked like, what they'd been paid. I wondered if they ever enjoyed the work, what they'd been paid. Was it a man or a woman? Was anything about the process pleasurable for them, or was it pure drudgery? And here I was, using the remains of their work to do...what, exactly?

There are no rules for the knitting, so at leisure I added or subtracted stitches, threw in yarn-overs, worked garter, ribbing, stockinette. It was the first time in a long time I've just played with yarn. And it occurred to me that this was a pleasure the maker of the original sweater had not had. S/he had churned out fabric on a knitting machine as ordered by some factory foreman, period. It made me consider what a privilege I enjoy, knitting what I want in whatever manner pleases me.

And other knitters were there, knitting, coming, going. It was a knitting circle like any knitting circle, except it wasn't. It was a knitting circle with a frame around it. A knitting circle with everything but the knitting removed. A knitting circle where none of us really knew what we were knitting. We were knitting to knit. We were knitters, and we were also art. And our knitting was knitting, and it was also art.

This all sounds jumbled, because so were my thoughts. They tumbled over one another like a cascade of marbles and by the time I left (I was only there for an hour) I felt exhausted and excited. See "art geek," above.

If you're in Chicago or can get here, Redress is open through February 21. Not much time left, but enough time to see it before it's gone. Go and have your own experience. And make sure to clock in and out.

Really interesting. I especially like the comment about being able to choose what you want to knit. We talk about being production knitters versus knitting for enjoyment, but really we all knit for our enjoyment, we choose what we make. That'd be so strange to not have the choice. Awesome exhibit.

Great (and extremely thoughtful) review but you mean you don't sit in a cabin in the woods, watching Monster Truck rallies on the satellite while drinking beer from the can and picking your teeth with a matchbook?

Cool! Way cool. Kudos to the women who designed the installation. Thanks for the description.

I must note it never occurred to me that you would watch monster truck rallies or pick your teeth with a matchbook. The picture of you in your tux on the ocean liner doesn't line up with the matchbook toothpick (although it is very satisfying to get what-ever-it-was out of the tooth, finnally. Usually it just jamms cardboard into the tooth space as well). I don't actually see you in a rustic cabin in the woods either, although I am amazed at the complexity of some people. I guess I am just not that sensitive.

Watching monster trucks and picking your teeth are pretty much at the top of my list of Things-I-never-expect-to-see-Franklin do, and even having never met you and only knowing of you through your blog, it's absolutely hilarious to even TRY to imagine you doing those things! You delight me ;-)

And this post is wonderful. I'm a bicycling knitting, and though I've never done those two things at the same time, I am intrigued by the idea of those sweaters and the yarn and old rims and the knitting. I wish Montreal were closer to Chicago. I'd love to see that.

*sigh* I've had these fingers all my life and still I run into trouble whenever I get near a keyboard (which is pretty much every day all day long, so that gives you some indication of my daily challenges!

Oh, pure BRILLIANCE! Let's see...it ends Saturday, today is Wednesday and the weather's crappy. Nope, probably can't get there, but I'm VERY big on Vicarious Enjoyment and you've done it for me, thank you! (I've heard of getting used sweaters at thrifts, unravelling them in participating in their reincarnation - that's on my list. I mean, how COOL is that??)Oh - what's going to be done with the rich community swatches when the exhibit ends?

How wonderful! I loved both the tale and your musings. Isn't this precisely what art is supposed to do -- bring us into another realm? Looks like this exhibit really hit all the spots. I wish it would come to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Yes, absolutely, the monster truck pull, right after you get out of prison. Take the bus there.

heh.

It's true, when we knit, we tend to think about who we are knitting for, or the pattern we are knitting. But I don't forget my mother sitting on the old vinyl recliner going "acccch! I made mistake." Or my first experience with a Bond (before they were USMs and ISMs) makes me think about my grandmother crafting at home during the Depression to make extra cash.

Ah Franklin it sounds wonderful. I have a similar love of art but to see it used in a knitting context is truly facinating. Thanks for blogging it otherwise I would never have known. Looking forward to seeing the inspiration come through to your work too. Jacqueline x

Wow. Sounds pretty amazing. I'd be traveling to see it if ihad known earlier and could cover my shifts for this weekend. As it stands, it's not going to happen. I don't suppose the exhibit would be travelling would it?

Sounds really great. I like that kind of art. Much better than the deconstructionist, post-apocalypse, modernist stuff our local art gallery likes to through at us. Their motto seems to be "If it ain't dark, it ain't art!"

I so enjoyed your description of this wonderful event. Will you be able to update us on the possible future of this exhibit? Or of the end uses of those swatches? Hopefully some creative juices have started flowing in other communities. Thanks for sharing.

I'm sad that I won't be able to make it to Chicago before it ends, but thank you for your insights.

I have been knitting less and less lately, and reading about your pleasure in just playing with yarn gave me the insight that I am not having fun anymore because it has become a chore -- I am marking off projects that I have started or that I said I would do for someone, but not knitting something just for my own joy. So today I am casting on something just for my own pleasure, and to hell with all the things I promised. I think I need to remind myself this is my hobby, not my job. (ironically, art is my job) Thanks!

How interesting! I may have to broaden my art horizons beyond my dogs playing poker painting and my Velvet Elvises (Elvi?) and take in this exhibit! What a great concept! (Actually I can't claim art ignorance any more since I am now the proud owner of...an ORIGINAL Franklin Habit (echo, echo, echo......)

We wanted to address the questions asking if redress will travel. We certainly hope it will hit the road since there are still plenty of sweaters to harvest. We are in the process of applying to different venues in cities across the country. We will post the next opening to The Panoticon and hope to see you there.

"Well, you don't have to tell me twice. (You do, actually. Sometimes more than twice, because I inhaled too much Paas Easter Egg dye as a child.)" HA HA!!!! I still have a furtive addiction to sniffing boxes of fresh Crayola crayons and my kid's white Elmer's School Glue. OOOH and remember the work sheets that teachers would pass out printed in purple ink??? Mimeographs?? Oooh they smelled sooo goood.... (drifts off on a childhood smells flashback...)...... The art exhibit looks and sounds fascinating, by the way. I find your insights and experiential comments of working the yarn in the installation very interesting. Wish it would come north.

Lordy, Franklin- I wanna go dere! I have the perfect pattern to add in... some easy but luscious lace :) Oohh.... What fun. Add interest! The sky's the limit! (getting slightly crazed look and pondering lace stitches and maybe a few cables). From the Sock-Shaped State, ==Marjorie

Awesome. I agree with Bill Engvall, in that this particular word should be reserved for those things which are truly wonderous or awe-inspiring. So I'll say it again, this time with feeling ... awesome!

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